City Council Briefs

City moves forward on Pleasant Street

The Tonganoxie City Council voted unanimously to approve a contract for $56,473 with BG Consultants Inc., the city's engineering firm, to complete preliminary designs for the expansion plans for Pleasant Street.

Brian Kingsley of BG Consultants, said a significant amount of work was going to be needed on the street in the next few years and a preliminary design would help them move forward with the project if the council intended to make improvements.

"Since you now intend on building Pleasant Street sooner than later, we thought it would be good to go ahead and design the street at least to a preliminary stage, ideally go ahead and get it ready for a spring bid letting when the contractors are hungry and looking for their summer work," Kingsley said.

At 5:30 p.m. today, there will be a meeting with the engineers and the general public discussing the proposed street sidewalk plans for Pleasant Street.

Mayor makes appointments

Mayor Mike Vestal made these appointments Monday, with the council's approval:

Councilmember Steve Gumm abstained from voting on the city's depository.

City's pumps to be replaced

During his bi-monthly report, City Administrator Mike Yanez informed the council that Pat Cox of BG Consultants had informed Haynes Equipment of Olathe of the unsatisfactory performance of two of the three submersible pumps at the wastewater treatment plant.

Because of the recent failure of the two pumps, the remaining pump was not able to keep up last week with the huge surge of stormwater that flooded parts of the city, and a backup in the wastewater plant was created.

Gorman Rupp, which manufactured the pumps, has agreed to replace the faulty 11-horsepower pumps with new 13-horsepower pumps for only the cost of shipping the old pumps back to the manufacturer. The new pumps will be able to pump about 825 gallons per minute, a 75-gallon improvement over the old model.

While the new pumps will help in the case of another flood, Yanez told the council that the real problem was from the infiltration and inflow of stormwater in the sewer system.

"It's a problem we are hacking away at," he said.

Meeting date moved

The council voted to move its next regular meeting to Tuesday, May 29, so it will not interfere with Memorial Day. The meeting will be at the usual time, 7 p.m., at the council chambers. All city offices will be closed on Memorial Day.

Special event applications OK'd

A special event application was unanimously approved for Tonganoxie Days, which is scheduled for June 8 and 9.

Connie Torneden, chairperson of the Tonganoxie Chamber of Commerce Tonganoxie Days committee updated the council on this year's events.

Torneden requested that the city block off the 300 to 600 block of Fourth Street for the festivities.

The council also approved a special events application for the Abdallah Shrine Rodeo Days, which will be at the Leavenworth County Fairgrounds on Memorial Day weekend.

Reminder issued about tall grass

City Hall has been receiving a large number of calls about tall grass around town.

City Administrator Mike Yanez reminds residents of a city ordinance stating grass must be kept under 12 inches tall. He said the ordinance was in place to protect the appearance of neighborhoods in the city.

If grass remains above 12 inches, the city will inform the property owner. If the owner does not comply, the city will cut the grass and bill to the property owner.